Never the Same
by lawki47
Summary: At first, the asteroid that's headed for the moon seems like an excuse to have a party for Jessica. But after it happens, she knows that things will never be the same...
1. Chapter 1

**Tuesday, May 17**

The moon.

It seemed to be all anybody could talk about today. They reported on it all last night and this morning, too, and no matter where I went, there was nowhere to avoid a discussion about the moon.

It began this morning on the bus.

"Did you hear about the meteor?" Elisa asked me. "It's supposed to hit the moon tomorrow night. They said we're going to be able to see it and everything!"

"I heard," I answered. I didn't really want to talk about the moon. To me, it didn't seem all that interesting, but to everyone else, it was the hot gossip.

"I heard it was an asteroid," Logan said.

"It was an asteroid," Justin confirmed nodding. "It doesn't matter, anyway. It's going to hit the moon tomorrow around nine thirty either way."

And then came our classes. First period was English, and we were given an assignment to write a 3-page essay about the moon and how it affects our lives. Then in social studies, we learned about the history of the moon and we're to write a paper about an event in history that has to do with the moon. In science we learned about how the density of the asteroid and how the way it's supposed to hit the moon, there shouldn't be any significant change in it's orbit. The moon even got incorporated into our math lesson. Mrs. Marcus made us draw the moon in art, we made moon cakes in FCS, and we're to write an essay in Spanish about _la luna._

"Wow, it's hot out," Elisa said as we walked outside from the back locker room/gym entrance, out to the lacrosse fields. "What's the temperature?

I looked at my phone, which I usually keep with my sweatshirt on the sidelines. "91 degrees," I answered (I clearly wouldn't be needing my sweatshirt.)

Lacrosse was brutal. It always is, when it's 90 degrees (which it has been twice already in this abnormally hot May) and to top it off Coach Saunders made us run suicides because we lost our game on Monday against our rival school and we probably shouldn't have.

"I want you guys to be focused tomorrow at the game!" She said. "It's going to be tough like yesterday, but no slacking off this time!"

No slacking off. Whatever that means. I play attack, anyway, and sometimes our team is just so bad I touch the ball maybe once in the game. Our record is 6 wins, 8 losses. We still have 4 games left. Hopefully they'll all be wins, but I doubt it.

By the time I got home it was 6:00, so I started my homework as Mom cooked dinner tomorrow. The news in the background on the kitchen TV was playing, talking about the moon, again.

"It's supposed to be really nice tomorrow night," Mom said, looking up from the steaming pot of pasta that she was stirring. "Around 70, and perfectly clear skies. Courtney and the kids are gonna come over and we'll all watch the moon in the street."

"What happens if a car comes by?" I asked. "And, can you make sugar cookies for the special event?"

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "And yes, Jessica, I can make sugar cookies."

**Wednesday, May 18**

I have to write it down. I have to write it all down, before I go to sleep. I have to write it down because if I'm dead by morning I want everybody to know what happened here, in Long Island.

I'll start with the morning. It was relatively uneventful, I guess. Except for this morning, before school. Dad called Aunt Sarah, who lives down on the south shore.

"I think you should leave," he told her. "The moon is crazy. I know they're saying it's not going to do anything, but just to be safe. And if I'm wrong, you can go back tomorrow. No harm in safety."

"I guess so," I heard Aunt Sarah say. "Other people are leaving. I guess we can, too."

I didn't stick around to hear the rest of the conversation, because by that time the bus was at the stop and Mom was reminding me that I had to clean my room last night in case Liam and Danielle (Courtney's kids, they're our neighbors and family friends) come upstairs later. I nodded as if I cared, and then hurried to make the bus.

School wasn't even as much geared towards the moon as it was yesterday. It was brought up in nearly every class, yes, but all of the assignments have been assigned and are due on Friday, point blank period. So there was no reason to talk about it all that much.

Not until ninth period, at least. Elisa and I were talking about how we were totally going to win our game today because the other team lacked a good defense, and then the loudspeaker cackled to life.

"Attention students and faculty, all after school activities are cancelled for the day," the woman said.

Normally I would be happy that I could skip out on a lacrosse practice and get all my homework done then get to sleep early, but not today. We had a game and wanted to prove to coach that we were better than we had been at our game on Wednesday.

"Why did they cancel all after-school activities?" I asked our teacher, Ms. Bernbaum.

She shrugged. "The moon thing, I guess. A lot of people are throwing parties and this is a pretty big deal."

"Not a big enough deal to cancel a game," Elisa said, groaning. "Whatever. Are you doing anything later for the moon?"

"Yeah, Liam and Daniella are coming over," I told her. Liam and Daniella are in the grade above us, but Elisa knows them anyway because she's my best friend and she's over all the time.

"I'm not doing anything," Elisa said. "My dad's on business in Chicago and my mom's going to be working until almost 10. And Jon's going to a party at some girl's house, so I'm probably not even going to end up watching the moon."

"Do you want to come over?" I asked. "My mom made cookies just for the occasion."

I texted Mom to make sure once school had ended, but it was fine with her and I told Elisa we would pick her up around 6:30 to eat dinner with us first. It was funny. This afternoon the whole asteroid thing just seemed like an excuse for teachers to assign homework and everybody else to have parties.

Ha!

"I wish they hadn't cancelled your lacrosse game," Mom said when I got home from school. "Now I have to deal with your brother for thirty minutes more."

I had a snack and then I did my homework, which wasn't really much because apparently most of the teachers were having parties tonight, too. But Mom told me that as long as I had time, I should get started on the assignments, so I did. I worked on Spanish first and then moved on to social studies, and stopped when it was 6:30.

"Can we go pick up Elisa now?" I asked Mom.

We all got in the car, and my little brother Peter instantly began complaining. "Why does Jess get to have a friend over and I don't?" He said in a whiny voice.

"Because my friends aren't little ten year olds that run around the house screaming bloody murder the whole time!" I snapped at him.

We began bickering but stopped when Elisa got in the car, not because she hasn't seen us fighting before, because she definitely has, but because Mom started to get angry. We drove back to our house in mostly silence.

"So when is your Dad coming back from Chicago?" I asked Elisa as Mom began serving us dinner.

"Friday," she said. "He's there on business all the time. I think there's a headquarters in New York and a sector in Boston."

"Our dad never goes on business trips," Peter said, scraping his rice aside with his fork and looking slightly disappointed.

"When is he coming home, anyway?" I asked.

Mom looked at the clock. "I think around ten. He wants to be home for when the asteroid hits, but he doesn't think he'll be able to. Apparently it's supposed to be pretty amazing, you can see it and everything."

After that, Liam and Daniella came over. Peter wasn't any more disappointed that he didn't have any friends over than we already was, so he just went upstairs to play X-Box. Liam, Daniella, Elisa, and I talked for awhile until about 9, when we all decided to go outside.

Mom and Courtney (Liam and Daniella's mom, she's single because their dad left them and moved to Atlanta a few years back) were already out there. It was 72 degrees and the sky was brightly lit by the stars, a beautiful night by all standards. Everyone was out on the street. Some people were having barbecues, others were playing street football. Mom and Courtney got lawn chairs for themselves, so me, Liam, Daniella, Elisa, and Peter just sat on the street.

They said the asteroid would hit a little bit after 9:30, so by then the atmosphere began to change. We all stopped talking and from what I could see, everybody was looking up. We were all craning our necks to get a view of the moon. Everybody switched the positions of their chairs and some people got out their camcorders. Daniella even got out her iPhone to videotape the event.

And then it happened. It's not like we didn't know it was going to happen because we did, and we were all waiting for it. But I think it was the shock that it had actually happened. Nobody near me was using a telescope but down the street someone had called that they could see the asteroid coming, and we all saw it hit the moon, hit our moon, the moon that every person in the world, 7 billion people today and forty years ago, looked at.

And then everybody started screaming.

I didn't scream but my mouth was wide open, like, if a fly had flown in, I wouldn't have even noticed. Daniella was screaming and so was Courtney and everybody else was gasping. Down the street, I heard someone crying. And then a car turned on and it barreled down the street, everybody barely having enough time to scream "Watch out!" Before it came through, smacking one of our lawn chairs to the side.

And it wasn't just because the asteroid had hit the moon, because we knew that was going to happen. It was because the moon was now tiled and weird and right in the middle of the sky, like, way too big. I could see all of the craters perfectly without even squinting my eyes.

"Ok, we're fucked," Liam said.

Even though it was funny nobody laughed, because all anybody could look at was the moon. Courtney said something to Mom and she took Liam and Daniella's hands and ran inside her house.

"Mom..." I began.

"Let's go inside," she said. "We'll see if anyone on ABC or CNN or whatever knows what's going on any better than we do."

As we were going inside, Peter said, "What happened to the moon? Why is it so big?"

Nobody answered but we all went into the family room, and Mom turned on the TV, shuffling through the channels to find the news.

"I thought the asteroid wasn't really going to do anything," Elisa said. "They said it wasn't going to affect the moon at all, and it was just going to look cool in the sky, but nothing was going to happen."

"Well, something happened," I responded, pointing outside, where the moonlight was illuminating the now empty street.

"Shhh," Mom said, and she turned up the volume on the TV.

_"And welcome back to Eyewitness News 7 with our special edition. It is 9:45 PM on Wednesday, May 18, and as most of you know we have just witnessed a large lunar event in our skies...we do have astronomer Michael Walsh with much more on this subject than we can tell you."_

The camera switched over to a guy sitting alone at a desk, with a projection of the moon behind him._"We have very preliminary reports," _he said in a monotone voice. _"But what we can tell you right now is that the asteroid was much denser than we had previously assumed. It seems to have hit the moon from the side-opposing face and to have knocked it closer to Earth. We could not tell you how much closer, as reports from satellites are very sketchy right now. We do know that the asteroid came in contact with the moon at nine-thirty-seven this evening. The event was visible from most skies across the world, and again, we do believe that the denser-than-assumed asteroid has knocked the moon closer to the Earth."_

"Knocked it closer to the Earth?" Mom said, sounding concerned. "That can't be good. That definitely can't be good."

The news switched back over to the news anchor from the beginning. "We do have some early reports of flooding," he said. "There have been reports of flooding in downtown Manhattan as well as Staten Island. It is believed that there has also been flooding along the Jersey Shore. Again, it has only been fifteen minutes since the asteroid hit the moon, so these reports are very preliminary as well as sketchy. We are trying to get information from sources across the area. Yes, the flooding in downtown New York City has been confirmed. We can tell that CNN and other sources in downtown New York City are down. It is-"

Just then, the lights went out in the studio. The people in the studio began talking but the camera stayed on. For about a minute, we waited, until a yellow-tinted light came on behind the news casters, who were now holding flashlights and reading from a sheet of paper.

"It is unconfirmed that there has been flooding on the Eastern End of Long Island," he finished. "We have just lost power here at our studio. It appears that all other buildings across Manhattan have lost electricity as well. This could be due to the flooding reports that we have from downtown. OK, another confirmed report. 9:56 PM and we can confirm that there has been massive flooding in Staten Island. We also have reports that the tunnels leading into Manhattan have been blocked from floodwaters. It appears that the moon has caused tides to go wayward, which has been feared since astronomers made the discovery of the asteroid. Yes, we can now confirm that there has been major flooding on the Eastern End of Long Island. Montauk is currently an island. We have many reports coming in at this time. The ocean has breached into the bay at Shore Road in East Hampton. We have our first picture from on outside source, hopefully this will show on the screen-"

On the screen, a picture (that was dark and blurry) showed what appeared to be waters rushing down a street with lighted houses and cars. "This picture was sent to us by a viewer in Staten Island," he said. "We do not have many pictures. The time is now 10:02. It has been twenty-five minutes since the incident and we have confirmation of massive damage around the tri-state area. Long Beach and Massapequa have suffered flooding, that is confirmed. It appears that the Long Island Sound almost...drained out, by Oyster Bay and near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Okay, we have some reports from other states as well. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have suffered massive flooding and can currently not be seen from satellite imagery. Boston and Portland are being battered by large waves. Miami is also suffering major flooding. In our area, JCP&L and LIPA are reporting power outages in the thousands and looting has been reported across the area..."

I went to text Dad. He was supposed to come home around ten but I'm sure he got in traffic or caught at work with everything happening now. But it didn't matter anyway. A message came back, and it read, "Message failed!" I tried to text another person. It didn't work.

"My phone's not working," I told Mom. "The message's aren't sending and there's no 3G connection."

"Mine, too," Elisa said. "I tried to call my mom but it wouldn't go through."

Mom took out her phone. "Mine's not working, either. I guess the cell lines are down, because everyone's trying to call each other. Elisa, does your mother know that you're here?"

Elisa nodded.

"Maybe it would be best for you to stay the night," Mom said. "It's crazy from what we can tell and I don't feel safe going out and I'm sure your mother will understand, when she gets home from work."

Normally me and Elisa would cheer because really, a sleepover on a school night is awesome, but under the circumstances, we both nodded. I'm sure Elisa was worried about her mother just like I was worried about my father.

"Yes, the power outages have been confirmed," said the anchor on the news. "There have been nearly 200,000 in the New York City area. We have had confirmation now that there has been flooding all along the East Coast. Atlantic City has been breached by floodwaters. The water has reached nearly eight blocks inland in Charleston, North Carolina..."

"You guys should go to bed," my mom said, looking more concerned than ever. "It's almost 10:30 and there's no word on school being cancelled tomorrow. So go."

I said good-night to Mom and then me, Elisa, and Peter went upstairs. Elisa's showering now (it's not weird, she's showered at my house a million times) and now I'm writing this down all as fast as I can. I don't tell Elisa that I keep a journal, even though I tell her pretty much everything

Right now I'm watching the news. Latest news has it that all of the tunnels going into New York City were completely flooded after the asteroid hit the moon, which was over an hour ago now.

I really, really hope that my dad or either of Elisa's parents were in the tunnels at 9:37 PM tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thursday, May 19**

This morning when I woke up, I hoped it had been a dream. I hoped that the asteroid really hadn't hit the moon and there weren't any crazy tides and that everything was normal. But I couldn't pretend for long.

Elisa wasn't sleeping in the trundle bed, so I assumed she had gone downstairs. I went down, where I saw Elisa, my mom, and Courtney sitting at the table. I looked up at the time on the microwave, but it wasn't there. I mean, the microwave was, but the time wasn't. It wasn't on the oven either.

"We lost power," my mom said. "Late last night, right before I went to bed. There's no word on when we'll get it back. And school's cancelled."

"What time is it?" I asked.

Mom looked at her phone. "9:13."

"Have your parents called yet?" I asked Elisa. "Like, either of them?"

She shook her head. "Not yet."

"I wonder why the power's going out," Courtney said. "It's got to have something in the moon. This morning on the radio they were saying that there's been widespread power outages in every state and country, but they're not positive why. I just hope it comes on soon. Thursday is my laundry day."

"What else happened?" I asked. "While I was asleep. Did the tides recede? Did things get any better?"

"Better, worse," my mom answered. "Some places the tides pulled away but in others they sprung up. Los Angeles didn't get anything last night but as of this morning they've been battered. Ground communication with Miami has ceased since 11:30 last night. Z100 must have been flooded, because there's no station for it. What else is new?"

"And the supermarkets are low on food," Courtney added. "I went to Shop Rite earlier this morning to get bagels because the kids were hungry and I didn't have anything. There's people in there taking everything they see."

"Really?" My mom said. "Why's that?"

Courtney shrugged. "They're nervous about everything now. That the moon could destroy crops somehow and there's a possibility of food shortages even without natural famines. I heard it on the radio this morning."

"That doesn't sound like a small deal," I said. "Shouldn't we get food?'

Mom bit her lip. "Maybe we should go to the supermarket later and get some food. There's no harm in getting some. Do you want to come, Courtney? And Elisa, we can swing by your house to see if your folks are home and they just couldn't call because there's no connection."

"Okay," Elisa and Courtney both said, almost simultaneously.

I went to toast my bagel but there was no power, so I couldn't. I decided to have cereal, and I got the milk out, but Mom gave me a warning.

"Keep the refrigerator closed as much as you can," she told me. "They said the power outage could last as long as a week, and we don't want to loose everything in the refrigerator."

So I had my Cheerios regularly. Maybe the world wasn't really ending if I was having Cheerios.

After breakfast, me and Elisa went upstairs to get dressed (she borrowed my clothes because she hadn't brought any when she came over last night.) It was about 75 degrees outside, cooler than it's been the past few days, and the sky was a gloomy shade of gray.

"I think it's going to rain," I said, to nobody in particular.

When me and Elisa went back downstairs, we saw that Mom was on the phone and Courtney was sitting alone. "Liam and Daniella don't want to come," she said. "They're tired. Didn't sleep very well last night."

"Ok," my mom said on the phone. "But as long as you're safe. Ok, I'll tell them. Yep. Alright. Love you."

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Your father," she replied. "He's fine. He was coming home last night when the meteor hit. He was on the bridge and everybody totally freaked out. They closed the LIE and the Belt because there was flooding in some areas. He got a room at some hotel in Queens. The roads haven't reopened, so he doesn't know when he'll be home, but he just wanted to tell us he was fine."

"Good," I said.

We all got into the car and started driving towards Elisa's house. The roads were surprisingly full, but it seemed like everybody was heading into town, towards the supermarket. From what I could see, electricity had been lost pretty much everywhere. The streetlights and the stop/go lights were out, but we didn't see any police cars coming when there had been a few accidents. I guess they had more important things to do down by the shore.

Mom turned up the radio. "...and a string of severe storms is causing evacuations of areas devastated by waves last night due to the asteroid that hit the moon...reports of thousands of more power outages across the area, including a total loss of electricity in Manhattan and nearly 90% of LIPA's grid out this morning...Con-Ed has reported 385,000 outages and has said that they are trying to fix outages as best as they can but the outages are 'out of their control'..."

When we got to Elisa's house, we got out of the car and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. We knocked again, and then went to the back door, but still nobody answered. We went back to the car.

"Maybe they're like my dad," I said. "They just couldn't get home last night because the roads were closed."

The rest of the drive to the supermarket was silent. I think Elisa was expecting her parents to come home, so she was a little bit frazzled when they weren't at her house. It's been more than 24 hours since she's seen either of them, so I could see how it could upset her.

We pulled into the supermarket parking lot (which was packed) and Mom stopped the car. "Ok, I got fifty dollars bills," she said. "The power's out so there's no way they're going to be checking every single item. Here, Jessica, take some," she said, handing me an envelope full of $50s. There were five of them. I was holding $250 in my hand.

"Elisa, take fifty dollars," my mom said, handing Elisa a fifty. "If you're mother doesn't get home until tomorrow or the next day or however long it is and the supermarkets are already closed or out of food, at least you have some. Courtney, you have money, right?"

Courtney nodded.

"Alright. I'm going to get canned foods and soup, in case the supermarkets are closed for awhile and we can't get a lot of food. Jessica, you get other stuff. You know, some junk food, but mostly things like Band-Aids, Aspirin, tampons, etc. Don't go to crazy on the cold foods. I heard a rumor that the power's going to be off into the summer and even if that's not true it's safer to stay away from them, anyway. Oh, and get bottled water. Elisa, Courtney, you guys get whatever you think you'll need or want. Everybody ready?"

We all nodded, and got out of the car as if we were soldiers going into battle. There were a ton of people running into the supermarket but we just walked in. It was near 80 degrees but the sky was a frightening shade of gray and it was very muggy. I assumed those 'severe storms' were headed our way.

"Okay, good luck," Mom said, as we all took carts (that were running low) from the front of the supermarket.

Inside the supermarket was like a hellhole. The electricity was out but the emergency lights were on, which ominously lit the market with dim yellow lighting. There were people running around and snatching things off shelves. There were cracked eggs and spilt milk cartons and crushed produce on the floor. It was as if a tornado had ripped through the supermarket itself.

"I'm going over to food," Elisa said, and we separated by the door.

I decided to start by going to the produce section. It had been ransacked but I figured getting some fresh food would be better than just canned stuff did the supermarkets close like they said they were going to. I got some tomatoes and Romaine lettuce and Iceberg, too (Dad loves Iceberg; he says Romaine tastes like he's eating leaves.) Then I moved on to the junk food. I didn't go crazy, even though normally I would have. I got some Oreos and Chips A'Hoy and Lays potato chips and a few boxes of cereal and some crackers, and then a few boxes of pasta even though we had a lifetime's supply in the basement. Then I moved onto the cosmetics/pharmacy section (where I passed Courtney getting a few cases of water, which Mom had said she'd gotten covered) and got going. I loaded up on the tampons; Playtex for me but Tampax for Mom; I made sure to get the fat, light-adhesive Band-Aids, and I got aspirin, Benadryl, Motrin, and a few other drugs. By the time I was done, my cart was overflowing and I resorted to carrying two of the little red plastic bag-like things to get as much as I could. I didn't wait in a very long line.

"How much do you have?" The lady at the register asked me. "I can't check all of that. Nor do I want to."

"I have 250," I said.

She inspected the carts and the red bag things. "Give me 175," she said. I handed her $200 and she gave me 25 in change. It was difficult wheeling the cart and carrying the bag things out at the same time, but at least I knew that I was getting way more than $175 worth of stuff.

Mom and Elisa were already at the car, unloading their things. I had seen Courtney back in the supermarket, checking out.

"You did good," Mom said, looking impressed. "I don't suppose you have any money left?"

"I do," I said, giving Mom the $75.

"Wow, great," Mom said. "I'm going to go back in and get more stuff. You two stay here, and help Courtney." We saw Courtney wheeling her overflowing cart across the parking lot to the car.

Just as Courtney got to the car and we opened the trunk to help her unload the food, it began to rain.

It started off kind of light but as we unloaded the last of the bags, it began really coming down. And then came the thunder. It was loud, even through the safety of the car, and scared me even more than the first bright flash of lightning. Within minutes, it was a full-fledged thunderstorm.

"Wow," Courtney said. "Severe was right."

The thunder boomed, louder than I think I'd ever heard it before. The car said that the temperature had dropped from 81 degrees to 72 degrees in only 15 minutes as the storm bashed down. The lightning flashed and the rain pounded down and the wind picked up. The wind _really _picked up. The car began shaking. I couldn't see anything outside because it was raining so hard. A tree branch fell and smacked against the side of the car, causing us to scream.

"I think it's a tornado!" Courtney screamed, through the loudness of it all. "Cover your heads!"

I don't know how that was supposed to help, but we all did it anyway. More things smacked against the car (which I really hoped were branches and rocks, not people) and the thunder boomed even louder. The lightning flashes were as little as ten seconds away from each other but you could barely notice them, anyway, because it was raining so hard. The intense storm lasted for what had to be almost an hour. Usually strong summer thunderstorms are only about twenty minutes, but it was definitely an hour.

Although the extremely intense storm had ended, it was still raining pretty hard and the thunder was still loud, but the lightning strikes were less frequent and there wasn't as much wind by the time Mom came back. She was soaking wet.

"I was caught in the supermarket!" She said, shivering as she came into the car (the temperature outside had dropped to 58 degrees). "I took more food after I checked out, though. It's going to be tough to get all of this inside."

"Let's get going," she said. "I want to dry off."

"Can we drop by my house again?" Elisa asked. "You know, just to check if my parents came back or something."

"No problem, sweetie," my mom said, and we began to drive away from the hectic supermarket.

The storm was still going pretty strong (minus the tornado part) by the time we got to Elisa's house, but she insisted she walk to the front door and knock, anyway. We could see that a lot of trees had fallen down around the area and that there were power lines strewn across the place.

As if we were going to get power back anytime soon.

Elisa came back quickly, soaking wet, and sat down in the seat. "They're not there," she said.

We drove back home. Mom and Elisa went inside to dry off so I was elected to help Courtney get all the bags back to her house. Liam and Daniella joined after we dropped off the first load, so things sped up after that. But by the time I got to go back to my powerless house, I was just as wet as them.

"And I can't even take a hot shower," I said as I peeled off my wet clothes and changed into my dry sweatpants and t-shirt.

It rained the rest of the afternoon. The power stayed off. We got no new word on how things were everywhere else in the world. No new word from Elisa's parents.

No new word from Dad.

**Friday, May 20**

When I woke up this morning, Elisa was still sleeping. It must have been early, because it wasn't very bright outside but since the power was off, I couldn't tell what the time is. I only woke up because I heard a lot of commotion downstairs.

Mom was alone.

"What are you doing down here?" I asked her. "I thought there was a party going on it was so loud!"

"I'm nervous," Mom said. "Really, really nervous."

"Why?" I asked. "Is it Dad? What happened to him? Why isn't he home yet? Did he die from floods?"

Mom shook her head. "No, thank god. I got through to him about an hour ago. But I also got through to Grandma. And she hasn't heard from Aunt Sarah or Uncle Patrick since yesterday morning."

"What?" I asked, confused. "I thought they left their house to stay at Grandma's on Wednesday morning!"

"They did," Mom replied, looking exasperated. "And then yesterday morning, they went back to see if it had survived. They left Rachel and Natalie (those are their kids) back with Grandma when they went back. They weren't really supposed to, but they did, and they didn't come back. And they're not answering their cell phones. This is bad, really bad."

"You don't think..."

"I think it's a possibility," Mom said, knowing exactly what I was thinking. "The tides are crazy. They're crazy. I don't know what they were thinking, going back to their house ONE block away from the water. I think high tide must have came when they were in the area and they couldn't get away. I really do."

"But what about Rachel and Natalie? Who's going to take care of them?"

"Grandma, I guess," Mom replied. "I mean, maybe we're being a little bit too negative. I heard the tides pulled away from Miami some. Maybe they just couldn't get home because the roads were closed."

"We can hope," I said.

"We can hope," Mom repeated.

Elisa came downstairs soon after that. She said she didn't want breakfast and she just wanted to go home, so we went right away. We drove through town, which was pretty empty except for an occasional car, electric trucks, and an abnormally high amount of fire trucks and ambulances. In about ten minutes, we were in Elisa's neighborhood and we pulled up to her house. We knocked on the door again. Nobody answered.

"Really, Tom isn't home either," my mother said, to comfort Elisa. "Your parents are probably just stuck in the city, or something. Don't be worried. Is there anyway to get inside, to get clothes, or something?"

Turns out Elisa's parents keep a key to the side door under a mat to the basement door (clever, I guess.) So we went in, the door that led into the kitchen.

"I feel like we're breaking and entering," I said, snickering, but my mother nor Elisa seemed to find it funny.

Elisa's house was eerily perfect. It was just as it had been left on Wednesday afternoon when she'd come over. The power was off and since it was 77 degrees outside, it was 77 degrees in the house, too, which made it feel balmy and gross. Mom and I just stood there awkwardly, as Elisa packed a bag of things.

We went back into the kitchen, and Elisa stopped to look at a note that was hanging on the refrigerator. "My brother's coming home, I totally forgot!" she said, tearing the note off. "May 23rd. May 23rd. When is May 23rd?"

"Monday," I said.

"He's coming home on Monday!" She said, smiling. "Well, my parents will probably be home by then, but it's good to know I'm actually sure that he's going to come home Tuesday.

On the way home it began to rain. May showers bring June flowers, I guess. We turned on the radio and began listening. There was more updates on how things are in the rest of the country. Tsunamis, earthquakes. Schools in New York state are to reopen on Wednesday, May 25, if they can. Monday, May 23 will be a national day of mourning, and Tuesday, May 24, will be a state-wide clean up day.

When we got home, Peter started yelling at Mom for leaving him home alone when there's no power. And then Mom told him we wouldn't have to go to school until Wednesday, and he got over it. Typical.

The rain fell throughout the day, but nothing else exciting happened. There wasn't any thunder, and the temperature had dipped down to 66 by 4:00 and by night it was only in the low 50s. I was chilly, so I wore a blanket. But of course, I had to sacrifice a blanket for Elisa.

**Saturday, May 21**

Peter woke us up today.

"Mom went out to see if the supermarkets are still open," he said. "We're going to Grandma's for lunch. Everybody's really nervous. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Patrick still haven't come home. Do you think they're dead?"

"I don't know," I told him. "Nobody knows. All I know is that it takes like four days to travel forty miles."

"The ones with the kids?" Elisa asked. "They're dead? Oh my god!"

Elisa's been my best friend since kindergarten, so she's met pretty much all of my family. She knew when the babies were born and she's met them because Aunt Sarah and Uncle Patrick both work full-time, so Mom watches them on occasion, and Elisa's been over when she has.

"We don't know if they're dead," I said. "We hope they're not. I guess will find out later. Do you care if you come to Grandma's later? We can stop by your house to see if anyone's back yet."

Elisa said she didn't mind, and Mom came back soon after that. We left, driving down the pretty much empty roads. Elisa's house was empty (which wasn't surprising) so we got onto the highway. The lane going towards the city was jammed to the max, but the lane going out east (towards Grandma's house) was virtually deserted. Eventually, the highway was closed (the sign read "PAST EXIT 38 CLOSED FOR FLOODING) but Mom knew the back route and we were at Grandma's within ten minutes.

Grandma's house didn't have power, that was the first thing I noticed. The windows were open but it still felt muggy and humid and gross, especially since half my family was crowded into her house, which is relatively small.

We went into the living room, where all the cousins were (with the exception of the babies and the Smiths, for whatever reason they couldn't come). We usually hang out in there to watch TV, but because there's no electricity I guess we were just in there to dish out what we'd heard from our parents.

"I heard the whole south shore is completely gone," my cousin Brian said. "That's why Aunt Sarah and Uncle Peter didn't come back on Thursday."

"It can't be completely gone," Peter said. "I mean, can it?"

"I just want my mom to come home," my 10-year-old cousin James said.

"Wait, what? What happened to Aunt Hope?" I asked his older sister, who's 17 and is named Julia.

"She's fine, she's just stuck in the city," Julia told me. "She got stuck there Wednesday night and hasn't been able to come back. Your dad too, right?"

I nodded. "And Elisa. Neither of her parents are home yet."

The rest of the night was pretty depressing. We ordered from one of the extremely few restaurants that are open (they pretty much all closed on Thursday or Friday) but Mom wanted to get home before it got dark because there's no lights on the roads, so we left around 7.

Now we're home. We stopped by Elisa's house again to see if her parents were home, but they weren't. Dad wasn't home, either.

None of us want to say it, but we're all starting to think they're never going to come home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sunday, May 22**

The temperature dipped down to 53 degrees last night, and while that's not necessarily cold, it's pretty chilly for late May. Elisa and I bundled up in blankets and we slept until the late morning, because there was nothing to do and the power was (still) off.

"I can't wait for my brother to come home tomorrow," Elisa said. "I mean, my parents to, but I know that my brother's coming home tomorrow."

At least we know that Dad's okay. He called this morning, too. He's still at the same hotel in Queens. The LIE is still closed and there's absolutely no way he can get home, but at least we know what's up with him. Elisa still hasn't heard a word from her parents since Wednesday morning, and nobody in her family with the exception of her grandmother in Westchester, lives in the state.

After breakfast, Mom took Peter to his lacrosse practice. His coach apparently thought the practical end of the world didn't mean an end to his 5th grade travel lacrosse team.

Tomorrow's the national day of mourning, whatever that means. Mom's hoping they'll get the electricity on because apparently they're going to talk a lot about the damage that's happened across the world.

**Monday, May 23**

The electricity came on at 7:00 this morning.

I guess the light in the hallway had been on Wednesday night when we'd lost power, so it came on bright as a Christmas tree, waking me and Elisa up from the brightness. We've been sleeping with the door open to keep cool. Although it was 53 on Saturday night, last night the temperature hardly skimmed 65, so it was balmy and I couldn't decide if I should wear a blanket or not.

None of us really cared, though. Elisa and I jumped out of our beds and started cheering, turning on the lights and the central AC. Mom and Peter woke up and began to say, "What the-" until they noticed that the lights were on and we all started jumping, turning the lights on and off and putting the air conditioner on the lowest setting there is.

"I'm going to watch the news," Mom said.

"No!" Peter interjected. "Make scrambled eggs!"

Mom agreed to make scrambled eggs and watch the kitchen TV, which we almost never use. But it's been four days without electricity, and four days without electricity in the modern world is like 12 weeks without food 90 years ago.

The second the TV turned on, it began spewing bad reports. "_More confirmation that most cities in Australia have been damaged severely, the Sydney Opera House is decimated...downtown Los Angeles, or what remains of it, has been evacuated as tides seem to not have let up...in more positive news, nearly two million customers have electricity back this morning as electrical crews worked around the clock to fix an outage that seemed to have no reasoning behind it..."_

We ate breakfast and afterwards, Elisa said, "I want to go home to wait for my brother."

"We'll all go," my mother said. "We'll wait with you until he gets home."

And we did. Peter came too, and he brought his iPod so he could check up on the latest local scores for whatever new game he's addicted to. Instagram and Twitter and Facebook were kind of dull, because cell service is still out for some reason and nobody's had Wi-Fi because the power's been out since Thursday at the least.

When I say we waited, we literally waited ALL day, and Elisa's house smelled horrible because everything in the refrigerator had rotted. And then Mom recruited me and Peter (not Elisa, because 'she's not her kid') to bring all the rotten food out to the trash cans. Then we watched TV, mostly which was playing the funeral of the Vice President's wife, who died Friday when she went to see if her sister in California was okay. I don't think her body was actually in there, but they had a huge funeral procession nonetheless.

I guess the Second Lady can die because of floods just as easily as I can. Or just as easily as Aunt Sarah and Uncle Patrick probably did.

It got dark eventually and Mom hasn't wanted to drive when it's dark because there's no lights, but she was fairly certain that the power's on for good now so she said we could stay longer. But by 11:00, we were all tired and hungry, and Peter had begun a near-crying whine.

"I think we should go back to our house," my mom said.

"We can come back in the morning," I said. "Your brother's probably just running late. I mean, our parents were in the city and haven't been able to come home for five days, so you're brother's going to take awhile to get here from Indiana, right?"

I don't think Elisa really liked what we were saying, but eventually she reluctantly agreed to come back to our house.

"Hey, Jessica?" Elisa said. "We can go back tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," I said. "We can go back tomorrow."

I doubt her brother will be back by tomorrow.

**Tuesday, May 24**

Her brother didn't come home.

I think Elisa assumed he was going to. We didn't stay there the whole day because Mom wants to try to save gas (it's went up to $5.70 a gallon since last Wednesday) so we walked over there around 1:00. We agreed to wait until 6 and then walk back.

"I'm going to try and call him," Elisa said.

She called on her phone. It didn't go through. "I don't think there's any cell service. I haven't had any since Thursday," I said. "Try the house phone."

"We don't have a house phone," Elisa replied.

"What the hell? Who doesn't have a house phone?"

Elisa shrugged. "My dad thought it was a waste of money, so we just all got iPhones. We have a group chat and everything."

Once it turned 6:00, I said that we should leave. Elisa probably would've pressured me to stay longer but we were both starving, so we went home and ate dinner.

Oh, and Dad called.

"Hello?" Mom said, as the phone rang just after we'd eaten dinner.

"Debbie," he said. "Are you guys okay? Do you have power?"

"Yeah," my mom said. "The power came on this morning. What's going on? Are you still in Queens?"

"Queens doesn't exist anymore," Dad said, sounding out of breath. "They hadn't even told us, but they evacuated the whole borough. Yesterday morning the cops came around. If you weren't leaving on your own, they took you with them. And they took me."

"They took you?" Mom said, starting to sound concerned and debating her decision to put it on speaker phone, I assume. "Where? Are you coming home now?"

"They took me upstate," he said, sounding more distressed than ever. "I told them that I was trying to get to Long Island. But they evacuated the whole borough of Queens and the border between Queens and Nassau has been closed since Saturday. Nobody knew. The guy said that if we hadn't already planned to go somewhere else, Long Island not included, then we'd be taken to Binghamton. There's an evacuation camp up here, for people that can't get home, I'm assuming. It's not very packed now but I'm told they're getting new people every day."

"But you'll be able to get home eventually, right?" Mom said, now sounding almost more worried than him. "It's not like Nassau County and New York City are two different countries. Can't you hitch a ride down here?"

"I don't know," Dad said. "I don't know. Nobody knows. I don't think we're allowed to pass through Queens. It was evacuated fully, for whatever reason. Everyone, everything there, it's like a ghost town now. And they said the border with Nassau County was "closed." Everything's crazy. I think...I think it's safe to say that I _definitely _won't be home in the next week. I love you, honey. Tell the kids I love them. Other people need to use the phone. Bye."

He hung up.

"He's not coming home?" Peter said. Mom and I could barely look at him before he started crying, and ran off to his room. Then she followed after him.

"My dad's probably not going to come home, either," Elisa said. "Or my mom. Or my brother, for that matter. They're probably dead. They probably died Wednesday night, in the floods. I mean, they would've called by now, right?"

I didn't even try to tell her that she was wrong.

**Wednesday, May 25**

Elisa and I woke up very early for school this morning. For some reason I was excited to go. I guess to find out how everyone else is, or just to see other people other than Mom, Peter, and Elisa.

Mom gave us each a half a bagel, because we're starting to run out of easy-eat food and none of the supermarkets are open anymore (and we don't want to break into the canned food, even though we have plenty of it.) And then I realized that it's been a full week since I've seen Dad. I saw him right before he left for work Wednesday morning. And now it's Wednesday morning, except everything is totally different.

The first thing I noticed on the bus was that it was only about half full. I sat down next to Logan, and Elisa sat down next to Morgan, who I've never really talked to but is apparently pretty nice.

"Do you have power?" Logan asked. "I do. I got it back Monday night."

"Yeah," I said. "I got it back Monday morning. Are either of your parents...you know, not home yet?"

Logan shook her head. "No, thank god. My dad gets home around 6 on Wednesdays, and his boss let him go home early. But my aunt got stuck in the city. We haven't heard from her since last week."

"My dad's stuck in the city," I said. "And both of Elisa's parents. She's been staying with me."

"Are they dead?" Logan asked inquisitively.

"I don't know," I said. "Nobody really knows."

It took shorter than usual to get to school, because there were so little people on the bus. I thought most people had been driven in by their parents, but I guess not. There were less than 15 people in homeroom.

School was a blur. I'm in a few of Elisa's classes. After lunch, we were all told to go to the auditorium for an assembly.

"As you all know, a great tragedy hit us one week ago today," Principal Reagan said. "Our community has been fortunate enough to have only a very small number of casualties. But with all tragedies come sacrifices. The school board has decided that because we are running out of food in the cafeteria, the last day of school for grades K-7 will be Thursday, June 9, two weeks from tomorrow."

Everybody began cheering, except us eighth graders, because she only said "K-7."

"For our eighth graders as well as the high school students, Regents testing will be on Saturday, June 4 for Earth Science and Friday, June 10 for Math. The state has officially allowed us to change the dates, which were previously on June 22 and 23."

"Finals will be cancelled."

Then everybody cheered, because finals are very stressful and were scheduled for the week of the 13th-17th.

"There will be no eighth grade dance, that was previously schedule for Friday, June 10," Principal Reagan continued, in which everybody began to boo. "School lunches will not be served starting Tuesday, May 31st. And," she paused for a second. "School sports and clubs will be cancelled for the rest of the school year."

And that's when everyone really started booing. It was all fun and games when school's ending three weeks early, but not sports. Our lacrosse teams were all going to finals (if we had one our games on Wednesday the 18th and Tuesday the 24th, which we more than likely would have, we would have gone onto county championships and maybe even states. And the boys were supposed to have their county championship game on Thursday the 19th, and apparently it'd been rescheduled to this Thursday, but not anymore. Sports weren't a thing anymore.

I guess some people thought it was stupid to go to school now that it's over in two weeks, because sporadically during the rest of the day someone would be called for early dismissal and I saw some kids straight out walk out the front door of the school. Nobody was even trying to stop them.

"I wonder if my brother came home," Elisa said as we walked out to the busses. "You said your mom was going to see if he did, right?"

I nodded. "She said she'd go over for an hour or so and leave a note saying that you're at my house."

The bus ride home was even more empty than the bus ride to school, if that's possible. Logan wasn't there. Most of the sixth and seventh graders were gone. Everybody got a seat to themselves.

It was a terrible day, so it was such a shame that it was so nice out. It was 75 degrees and brightly sunny, the first very nice day we've had in awhile. It would have been a perfect day to play lacrosse.

Elisa's brother didn't come home either. Neither did Dad. Mom tried calling him, but he didn't answer. I wonder if he'll ever answer.

**Thursday, May 26**

Mom is pregnant.

It was a long day at school. The teachers tried to cram all the finals that they'd planned for June into the next few days, and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was nap. I woke up only to eat dinner. Elisa was already downstairs, because she had been slaving over herself to finish all of her homework assignments that were due tomorrow (I didn't have any.)

As we were eating our dinner of pasta (of which the proportions have gotten very small) Mom said, "I have to tell you guys something."

We all froze, because me and Peter assumed it was about Dad and I'm sure Elisa assumed it was about her brother or her parents.

"I'm pregnant."

And we still remained frozen. In total shock. Even Elisa was in shock, because that's the absolute last thing we expected to come out of her mouth.

"Pregnant?!" I said, sounding almost annoyed. "Aren't you forty-one?"

"Yes, I'm 41," Mom snapped at me. "And I'll be 42 in July. But that doesn't matter. 41 year olds can be pregnant. Your father and I were planning on telling you together. But now...I just thought that I should tell you today."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Peter asked, excitedly. "If it's a boy we're naming it Derek. After Derek Jeter. When is it going to be born?"

"I don't know if it's a boy or a girl," Mom said. "And I'm about three months into the pregnancy already. Your father and I decided to wait to tell anyone because, well, I am a bit older and there is a certain risk when it comes to being pregnant when you're over 40. But I'm going to be fine. And come November, you're going to have a little baby brother or sister!"

That's assuming we'll be alive in November, of course, and some huge weird tsunami doesn't toss our house into the Atlantic.

"That's so cool!" Elisa said. "And my aunt was 40 when she had my cousin. And she was fine. And my mom was 37 when she had me, and that's kind of old, and I'm normal, too."

"I beg to differ," I said, and Elisa laughed.

"I think I'm a little more mature now, anyway," Mom said. "Me and your father. When we were 27 we were so young and kind of didn't know what we were doing. But now we have two kids and we have a lot more money, and I think having a baby when I'm 41 will be fine."

"You're going to be 60 when it graduates high school," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah," I said. "And I'll be 33."

"Well, let's not point out the negatives," my mom said. "What's the difference that I'll be 45 when Jessica graduates high school and 60 when the new baby does? It doesn't matter. I'm happy, and you guys should be, too."

"As long as I don't have to share a room with it," I said.

My mother laughed. "There's always the guest room."

**Friday, May 27**

More tests in school today. Finals. It's kind of annoying that Principal Reagan said that there were 'no finals' when there's actually still finals in just about every class, they're just three weeks earlier.

I got a 77 on the science SLO. I haven't done very good in science all year, so I was nervous to tell Mom, but she just said, "Does it really matter anymore?"

I guess not. School ends in less than a week now, and it really does seem like a big joke. Nobody's been paying attention and I feel like I just go for entertainment.

There's a 3-day weekend, because Monday is Memorial Day. School is like a maybe-maybe not situation nowadays.

**Saturday, May 28**

The power shut off again.

It was again for no reason at all. In fact, with the exception of some clouds, it was a beautiful day outside; 72 degrees and low humidity. But in the middle of eating breakfast, the lights shut off.

"Again?!" Peter cried in a whiny voice.

"I thought we had a thing going," I said. "Five solid days with power. Was that too much to ask for?"

"I heard on the radio that nearly every country in the world is experiencing widespread power outages," Mom said. "They don't even know why. It obviously has something to do with the moon, but the power just keeps shutting off. We're lucky it's stayed on consistently for so long."

"So what? We're just going to have on-and-off-again power for the rest of our lives?" Elisa asked.

Mom shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows?"

Since the power was off me and Elisa decided to again walk over to her house to see if anyone had come home (or if she had power) but both were negatives. She got some books and other things she wanted and we went back again.

We lazed around for the rest of the day. Elisa did her homework and I considered doing it, I really did, but I didn't, I just laid on the couch and took a nap. Then around 7:00 I woke up. It was still light out (the sun sets at like 9 nowadays) but I was hungry. Hungry for dinner.

"Mom, I'm hungry!" I called. She came in from the kitchen.

"Me, too," Peter said. Elisa nodded, her way of saying, in a polite way, that she was hungry, too.

"Well, we don't have much here," Mom said. "That's assuming you're not planning on eating canned spinach for dinner. We can go look to see if anything's open, I guess. You guys up for a ride?"

We all got into the car, (making sure to leave a note 'just in case' Elisa's brothers or parents come by while we're gone) and drove off. Mom drove pretty slowly because all of the traffic lights were out. The sun was still up so we couldn't really tell, but I think one neighborhood closer to town had power. We don't know anyone that lives there, though, so it didn't really mater.

"What about McDonalds?" Peter said. "It's open, right?"

We all looked over at McDonalds, which we were driving past. "No, it's not open," Mom said.

"Wow, all of these places are closed," I exclaimed as we drove through town and passed strip malls.

We kept driving through town, but literally everywhere with the exception of a bridal shop, the post office, a realty store, and the police station was closed. Until...

"Wait! Stop!" Elisa screamed.

Mom slammed her brakes, expecting that there was a deer in the road or something.

"What?!" My mom cried, exasperated.

"The sushi place! Look at it!" Elisa pointed to the sketchy sushi restaurant that I've never been inside and always looked empty. But today, it was jammed to the max, people flooding out the front door and everything.

"Let's go!" Mom said, and she pulled the car over to the side of the road, where other people were parking. We joined the bustling line of people, all of whom looked stressed and tired.

A lot of rumors went around in line. "I heard Los Angeles doesn't exist anymore," one guy said.

"That's not true," a woman standing near us said. "My sister lives just outside of Los Angeles and I heard from her yesterday. It's okay there."

"We haven't had consistent power since last week," a younger woman holding a baby said. "I heard somewhere that it might go out and not come on until the fall. I really hope that's false."

"Is it true that Queens got evacuated and like, isn't there anymore?" A guy in line said.

"It's true," Mom interjected. "My husband was stuck there, and they moved him to an evacuation center up in Binghamton. He hasn't been home since last Wednesday."

I was glad when we got seated by the hostess who looked overwhelmed and spoke almost no English, because all the negativity in line was really making me upset.

"I don't like anything here..." Peter said.

"Well, there's nothing else to eat, so get something!" Mom snapped at him.

I got some kind of shrimp sushi. I don't know what Peter and Elisa got, but they both seemed to enjoy it. Or maybe they were just hungry. I don't think it really matters anyway.

The electricity didn't come on the rest of the day. I really hope that what the woman in line was saying wasn't true.

**Sunday, May 29**

We had electricity for about 45 minutes around 8 this morning. Elisa and I went to bed really early because we had nothing else to do, and then we woke early and we still had nothing else to do. When the electricity came on, I checked my phone and Mom went on the computer. She'd heard that there were lists of people who'd died, but she couldn't find one for our area.

It's probably because half of our area is dead.

"The electricity's been on and off pretty much everywhere for the past week," my mom told us after the electricity shut off again. "There's some pretty severe weather out in the Great Plains, and it's headed for us tomorrow night into Tuesday. But today should be nice; about 70 degrees and sunny."

And because it was nice, we took advantage and went outside. Peter's iPod finally charged after being dead since yesterday, so he played on that, and me and Elisa studied for the Earth Science regents coming up on Friday.

"Do you know the stuff about average temperature curves?" Elisa asked me.

"No," I told her. "I don't pay attention in class. I don't even care if I fail this Regents."

"Me, either," Elisa said. "It feels like a joke that we're actually taking it with everything going on right now."

A joke. That's exactly what it feels like.

**Monday, May 30**

Memorial Day. Usually there's a parade that goes all throughout town, starting at the high school and ending by the railroad tracks, but it was cancelled this year. Mom lived in our town when she was younger, and she said it's never been cancelled in her lifetime. And she was born in 1971, so that's saying a lot.

It's not like the weather was all that nice to stay outside during the parade today, anyway. We didn't have power (not even for 45 minutes like we did yesterday) but we sat outside anyway, pretty much waiting for the day to end. Around 3, Mom's cell phone rang.

"It's a random number," she said.

"What area code?" I asked.

"507," she responded.

"That's my brother's phone number!" Elisa screamed, and she grabbed the phone from my mother's hands. "Hello?"

She turned it on speakerphone, because the connection was fuzzy.

"Where are you?" She asked.

We could only make out a few words. _"Couldn't get home...evac camp...got with group...Ohio..."_

Eventually the connection cut off completely, but Elisa didn't even seem to care. She started jumping up and down. "He's alive! He's alive! My brother's alive! Oh my god, my brother is actually alive!"

The rest of the day she talked about how he's totally going to be home in under a week and how he's fine and how they're going to live happily ever after or whatever. But my dad was 45 minutes away from my house, and he couldn't get home for a week before he got moved. And if her brother is (bare minimum) 10 hours away in Ohio, who knows if he'll ever get here? Everything takes so long now.

**Tuesday, May 31st**

School was even more deserted this morning.

I guess people decided that there's really no reason in coming. The governor made the Regents optional, so nobody even sees a point in staying in school for that. I can't really blame them. If there was something to do at home, I wouldn't go, either.

There wasn't much to do at school, though. The thunderstorms were violent all day and the power stayed off, so we were pretty much stuck in a dark school with the occasional lightning flash that lit up the whole classroom. At least there wasn't another tornado, like the day after the thunderstorm.

"Have any of you actually studied for the Regents yet?" My science teacher, Ms. Raphaelson, asked us.

Some people mumbed, 'no,' but nobody raised their hand. I didn't want to say that I actually had, so I just didn't say anything.

"How was school?" Mom asked when we got home. Elisa and I didn't even bother telling her.

We had electricity for about an hour at 7:00 tonight, so Mom had enough time to make us some pasta. "I want real dinner," Peter complained. "Dad always makes good dinners."

And that reminded Mom to call Dad. "It didn't go through," she said.

It's not like we were expecting it to, anyway.


End file.
